London Mayor wants reduction in road casualties

A new road safety plan called ‘Safe Streets for London’ is targeting a 40% reduction in the number of people killed and seriously injured on the capital’s roads by 2020.

London Mayor Boris Johnson (pictured) and Transport for London (TfL) have published the plan which sets out a clear path towards helping to reduce death and serious injury on the capital’s roads.

The new plan, which covers the period until 2020, was launched at the Waterloo IMAX roundabout yesterday (6 June).

This area has recently benefited from a range of enhancements to help improve the safety of all road users.

This busy junction is also the first of a number that TfL is looking to introduce 20mph limits at in the next few years.

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: “I want London to be the most liveable capital city in the world and improving the safety of our roads is key to achieving this.

“We’ve made good progress in recent years, but we must do more. London’s population is rapidly increasing and the extra demand that this will place on our road network poses a significant challenge.”

The plan builds on solid progress already made by TfL, the London boroughs and the police over the last decade to improve the safety of London’s roads.

Using detailed analysis of how and why people are injured in road collisions in the capital, and which groups are affected, it looks to ensure that the right measures are being taken to reduce casualties.

TfL has identified 56 key measures which will help drive forward change and improve road safety for all, including:

Ensuring substantial long-term investment on schemes to radically improve the safety of London’s main roads: TfL’s recent business plan set out how an unprecedented doubling of planned spending on London’s roads over the next 10 years will be spent, rising from a planned £1.9bn to around £4bn. In partnership with the boroughs, TfL will look to focus this investment into proven and innovative road safety methods engineered to ensure continued improvements for vulnerable road users across London

Creating a London Vehicle Innovation Task Force: This group will consist of representatives from the motoring industry and work to identify, support and trial new systems such as advanced emergency braking systems for motorcycles and in-car driver feedback systems

Equipping boroughs with the skills needed to implement road safety improvements: A programme of training and best practice sharing for borough road safety teams will be put in place to ensure that the skills needed to make this step change in road safety in London are available

Focusing police enforcement: We will also use the best methods in intelligence analysis to help focus police enforcement to specific times and places in order to tackle driving behaviour that leads to the highest risk of collisions

Open data on collisions in London: The data on collisions in London will be made available online for the first time. A new tool to help boroughs better understand how to improve safety on their roads will be created and a digital speed limit map covering all of London’s roads will be updated and maintained, enabling a revolution in intelligent speed assistance technology. Going forward, TfL will look to work with local authorities and the Department for Transport (DfT) to develop a digital speed map to cover all UK roads

Make the best use of innovative marketing and education resources: These will focus on the behaviours of all road users which put vulnerable road users at risk, such as speeding, passing too close to cyclists, and failure to look properly at junctions. Earlier this week, a new cycle safety advertising campaign was rolled out across London, highlighting key safety tips from both a motorist and cyclist perspective

Carrying out trials of innovative cycling measures: If successful, these measures could be introduced in London and potentially more widely across the UK. The trials will examine a range of suggestions such as ‘Dutch style’ roundabouts and low-level cycle signals to assess their suitability for introduction on the UK’s roads, subject to DfT approval.